Epigenetic Markers of Cell Division and Ageing in Relation to Breast Cancer Survival

Abstract

Breast cancer remains a major challenge to public health. Biomarkers may be useful to improve prediction of breast cancer survival. Several epigenetic markers of cell division and ageing based on DNA methylation have been proposed. In this study, we measured these epigenetic markers in breast tumours and assessed their prognostic value. We used genome-wide DNA methylation data measured in 1992 breast cancer tumours from the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study and publicly available datasets. We calculated four markers of cell division (epiTOC2, stemTOC, MiAge and CellDRIFT), two markers of chronological age (Horvath age and BTEC), and four markers of biological age (PhenoAge, GrimAge, MRsco..